Knowledge Bridge

Global Intelligence for the Digital Transition

//Ran Ju /June 28 / 2012

Advertisers and publishers look to tap rising smartphone use in India

India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets with around 900 million mobile phones in use, and the smartphone user population is growing exponentially, according to Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights.  The advent of smartphones has led to high growth in mobile Internet usage, particularly for social networking sites and Internet search, and growing advertiser demand for designs that are tailored specifically to smartphones. As in many emerging markets, the challenge for advertisers lies in how to create a variety of innovative ad formats and designs tailored to this new medium, as well as having a targeted approach on the platforms.

In India, the mobile handset market witnessed 6 percent growth in the first quarter of 2012, while the smartphone market surged by 17 percent, says market research firm Gartner. Nielsen also found that as Indian mobile users switch to smartphones, they spend more time consuming content than making calls or sending text messages, which brings new opportunities for content creators, including news organisations, as well as advertisers.

New patterns of smartphone use also present challenges and opportunities for news publishers and advertisers. For advertisers, new ad technology such as real-timeReal-timeEvents that happen “live” at a particular moment. When one chats in a chat…//read more  bidding gives them more control and an ability to target their audience. It also gives publishers more opportunities for monetization by letting them sell ad space through competitive auctions.

However, Vishal Bali, Regional Managing Director of Nielsen’s telecom industry group, noted that we are seeing significant resistance among smartphone users towards mobile advertising. As smartphone usage and the app space begin to mature, publishers need to look for new ways to monetize beyond the single ad network system. In particular they need to think about how to maintain the availability of various ad formats on different screen sizes.

Article by Ran Ju

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